


our house is not a home (yet)

by Readythedrums



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Domesticity, F/M, Final Pam voice: "I WILL TAKE A HAMMER AND FIX THE CANON", Fix-it fic if you squint, No references to Ep. 9, teeth-aching fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25414027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Readythedrums/pseuds/Readythedrums
Summary: Years after, Rey and Ben are looking for a home. They find something else.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	our house is not a home (yet)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [osso_reylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/osso_reylo/gifts).



Naboo summers were hot. That, Rey could handle. What made things insufferable was they were _humid_ hot.

Rey lifted the neck of her blouse and wiped her face with it. She refused the stupid Nabooian dresses most women wore, instead going for a simple blouse and sturdy trousers. Their speederboat was skimming the surface of Lake Berryn, a little slower than Rey would have liked, with Ben’s boxes weighing it down. 

Speaking of Ben…

“Are you going to let us know where we’re going?” Ben asked for maybe the thousandth time that day. He sat languidly next to Rey, one leg crossed over the other and his arms splayed out on the railing. 

“You’ll see,” she said for maybe the thousandth time that day. She said it distractedly. This _heat_. She groaned, and wiped her face again. “I don’t understand how you can stand this.”

Ben looked nonplussed and, infuriatingly, not sweaty. “The weather here is actually very similar to Chandrila,” he said. “I’m enjoying myself, actually.”

“Oh, how good for you,” she groused. 

The boat began to slow as the shore came into view. The dock led up to a tilting trail, which led to their destination, a stonecrafted lake house. 

Ben raised his thick eyebrows at her. Rey smiled, a finger up to her lips. 

The boat chugged to a stop. Rey took her only possessions -- the lightsaber at her hip and a duffel bag -- and awkwardly stepped out of the boat. Boats! What a stupid invention. Landspeeders were the way to go every time. 

Ben whistled for their accompanying moving droid to begin unpacking his many, many, many boxes. Rey led them up the trail -- stone steps leading up the hill. 

“This place looks ancient,” Ben said, almost losing his footing on a particularly old step. 

“It is,” Rey said, not looking back at Ben. 

“You sure this is … safe?”

“I used to live in an old AT-AT,” she reminded him. “Compared to that, this is a palace.” 

The foliage around the lake house was overgrown, ivy having long since taken the side walls and was beginning to eye the front wall. Once at the front door, Rey punched a four-number keycode into the number pad next to the door. Old technology, Rey noticed when she first visited the place. The number pad flashed green. Nothing happened. 

“Congratulations, Rey,” Ben deadpanned. “You’ve brought us to a broken door.” He kicked some of the leaves and dirt off of the front entryway. There was a mat on the ground, proclaiming, “WELCOME!” 

He gave her a look. 

Rey wedged her fingers into the crevice between the doors. “It just needs a little--” she grunted “--persuasion.” The doors groaned, and spat dust, but they did open, slowly, purposefully. 

“Welcome home,” Rey said, smiling, and gestured for Ben to follow her inside. 

The house was split into two rooms, simple as that. There was a main room, with a small kitchen, and a refresher. The floor was hardwood -- refreshingly antiquated, Rey thought -- and small windows placed throughout the space let in a surprising amount of natural light. 

Ben walked through the space, his face stony. He trailed his hands along the marble counters, along the fireplace mantle. 

“How old is this place?” he murmured. 

“Few hundred years, maybe.” Rey stood with her fists on her hips. She was so pleased with herself. 

“You purchased this?”

“Yep.” She had received a sizeable fortune through Leia’s will. This home, however, wasn’t exactly expensive. 

Ben just exhaled, very slightly. He, on the other hand, did not look pleased. 

Rey began to grow nervous. “I was thinking we could put the bed over here,” she said, gesturing to a corner. “And, uh, oh! The sofa over here.” She gestured to the fireplace. 

Ben said nothing. 

Rey began to grow _very_ nervous. “Do you … do you not like it?” 

“This is a Naberrie house,” Ben said slowly. Rey wasn’t sure if he had come to that conclusion himself or if he had just plucked it from her head. She was practically screaming it, internally. “You purchased my grandmother’s house.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you -- oof!”

Ben crossed the distance between them in several long steps and grabbed the back of Rey’s head. He pressed her face into his chest, both arms wrapped around her, tight. 

“Thank you,” he muttered into her hair. 

Rey grinned into his black tunic. “You’re welcome,” she said, muffled. 

He released her after several long moments. 

“How did you even find this place?”

Rey was pleased with herself again. “I was going through listings on the HoloNet, and this place was remote enough for our needs. I was curious why such a lovely space had been unused for so long, and saw the last owners were Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie. Your grandmother’s parents! I thought it had to be fate.”

He trailed his hand down the stone wall. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

_CLANG. CLANG._

The mover droid was banging against the doorway, trying to get in. He was too wide. Rey sighed, the moment ruined, and helped him begin to move the boxes in. 

Rey didn’t understand how Ben could have so much _stuff_. He had clothes and robes and bits of electronics. Artifacts and calligraphy sets and Jedi texts. Sith ones, too. Rey eyed him when she began unpacking those, and he just shrugged. 

“Old habits,” he said. 

What they didn’t have was furniture. Rey cheerfully mentioned that she packed two sleeping rolls within Ben’s stuff, but Ben scoffed. 

(“I’m not sleeping on the _floor_.”)

(“You get used to it real fast--”)

(“ _No_.”)

So, they had to go furniture shopping. 

The nearest town was across the lake, meaning they had to get in the stupid speederboat again. The moving droid in tow, they made their way to the town of Spitak. 

Rey thought it was a cute little town -- they worked through an open-air market filled with humans and Gungans, mostly, alongside some other species. 

They picked up an armoire from a Rodian junk trader and a bed frame from a human woodworker. Ben groused quietly about the quality of the wood, but Rey just replied that just because he was used to cold metal and steel didn’t mean he had to complain all the time.

They found a Wookie artisan near the end of the row of stalls. 

Ben poked around the items for sale before he picked up something of indeterminable use, made of straw and leaves and other natural materials. “This is fine work,” Ben said to the Wookie approvingly. 

“What is it?” Rey asked. 

“Art,” Ben said. “From northern Kashyyyk. Unc--” He cleared his throat. “Chewbacca once mentioned this type of work is quite rare.” 

The Wookie artisan roared in agreement. 

“But what is it,” she said. “What’s it _for_.”

“It’s for your wall,” Ben said, looking down at her, confused. “It’s meant to look nice.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ben lowered the art. “Have you really never heard of decorations?”

“No?”

They bought the piece. Rey still wasn’t sure why. The two loaded their purchases onto the boat, using the moving droid. When their work was done, Rey took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from her brow, and turned to Ben, beaming. “Hungry?” she asked. 

They found a seedy cantina deep within the town, staffed by an irritable Twi’lek. 

“Haven’t seen you two before,” she said, as they sat at the bar. “We don’t tend to get a lot of visitors to this part of town.”

“I’m Kira,” Rey said cheerfully. “This is my husband Cade. We just moved nearby.” Only most of that was a lie. 

“I don’t care,” she said, and turned around to serve someone else. 

“Charming local color,” Ben muttered. He turned to Rey. “You don’t need to announce yourself to every person we meet.” 

“I’m being friendly,” she said defensively. “It’s an _art_. You could stand to learn it.”

He huffed. 

Rey ended up ordering a serving of Shaak pot roast, with carrots and purple potatoes, while Ben got a glass of wine. (“I’m not hungry,” he said, squinting through to the filthy kitchen.)

Rey dug into her roast like she hadn’t eaten in days. Bits were flying. Ben looked at her knowingly over his wine glass. 

“Like you’re so dignified,” Rey said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. 

“I’m very dignified.” He polished off the wine. “I was, after all, once Supreme Leader of the galaxy.”

“Do you have to bring that up every time, Ben?”

“Maybe. It reminds me I used to be someone.”

She put a hand over his. Squeezed. “You’re someone to me.” She went back to her meal. “Also, you were a terrible ‘someone.’ Just awful.” 

“My wife, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. Then, to the Twi’lek, “Ma’am, can I get another glass of … whatever this is?”

They finished their food (and wine) and left the cantina. Rey insisted on a walk, despite the heat, to work off the meal. 

“You have to admit,” she said. She slipped her hand in his. “It is a nice town.” 

“We’re going to spend the rest of our lives here,” Ben muttered, and she wasn’t sure if he was happy or sad about that. 

“Would you rather be on a ship somewhere, blowing up planets?” Rey asked. 

“Maybe.”

“You would not.” 

“Maybe I would.”

“It would be bad, Ben. We’ve been over this.” 

Ben opened his mouth to argue, but Rey squeezed his hand, hard. This time, it wasn’t in endearment. “Do you feel that?”

Ben blinked, and turned. “We’re being followed.”

A large, thick-necked human was thirty paces behind them, a hand on the blaster on his hip.

“Can we help you?” Ben asked, irritated. 

The human nodded his head at the lightsabers on their hips. “You two Jedi?”

Ben snorted. Rey raised an eyebrow. “Of sorts,” Rey said. “Is there something you need, or--” 

The man raised his blaster. Ben had his lightsaber out and ignited immediately, while Rey gripped her own, leaving it unignited. 

“Listen,” Rey said slowly. “I think there’s been some misunderstanding.”

“Oh, no misunderstanding here,” the man said, in a thick, low-class Coruscanti accent. “Overheard you in the cantina. Looks like I’ve just found Kylo Ren.”

“Bounty hunter,” Ben snarled, and stepped forward. Rey put a hand out, stopping him. 

“Kylo Ren is dead,” Rey said. She tried to put some coercion into her voice, but apparently, the man wasn’t mind tricked so easily. 

“Doesn’t look so dead to me.” 

“You really don’t want to do this,” Rey said. “Please rest assured, you would be making the biggest mistake of your life.” 

He put his finger on the trigger of the blaster. The hair on the back of Rey’s neck prickled, and in an instant, Ben deflected a blaster bolt. A smoltering hole appeared in the wall beside them. 

“So we’re doing this,” she sighed. 

She ignited her own saber. 

  
  


“That was shockingly enjoyable,” Ben said, shortly after.

The two were on the boat ride back, their furniture tied down, Ben splaying his lengthy legs out. The human, whoever that was, was still tied up in that back alley, bruised and beaten. 

The galaxy’s last two force users over a human with a blaster. It was hardly even a fight. 

“You didn’t have to _punch_ him,” Rey said. “Much less in the face.” 

“Oh, he had it coming,” Ben said. 

Rey shrugged. “Nevertheless, it was … unsportsmanlike.” 

Ben grinned, splitting his long face in two, and leaned in to her. “Love, I’ve never been sportsmanlike.”

“I hate you,” she said. 

“I know,” he said. 

They sailed up to the lakehouse, only to find another boat already docked. Ben was up and on his feet in an instant. “What the hell?” he asked. 

Rey put her hand on her lightsaber for the second time in an hour. “Let’s investigate,” she said. 

They walked up the steps to the lakehouse, ready for their second fight of the day. The door was open, but there were no signs of forced entry. 

Ben looked at Rey. Rey nodded. 

They went through the doorway together. 

A human woman stood in the middle of the room, her hands folded. She turned when Ben and Rey entered. She was pretty, her brown hair up in a complicated bun. There was something in her face that was familiar to Rey.

“Did you two … move in here?” the woman demanded at once. 

Rey blinked. Ben furrowed his brows. “Who are you?” Ben asked. 

“My name is Suri Naberrie,” she said hotly. “And this is _my_ house.”

Rey relaxed, but glancing at Ben, he looked more suspicious than ever. “That’s … not possible,” Ben said. 

“Oh?” she huffed. “And why is that?”

“ _My_ name is Ben Solo,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “And I’m the last living descendant of Padme Amidala Naberrie.” 

Something in Suri’s expression softened. “Oh. You’re the troublemaker, then, I take it.”

That was … the biggest understatement Rey had ever heard. “Are you two related?” she asked, looking from Suri to Ben and back again. 

“My mother was Pooja Naberrie,” she said. “And _her_ mother was Ryoo, sister to Padme Amidala.” 

Ben, relaxing slightly by the second, seemed to be looking for something deep in his memory. “My mother never mentioned having relatives on that side,” he said slowly. With some bitterness, he added, “But then, she was never very thorough about filling out my family tree.” 

“Your mother is Leia Organa, I take it? She reached out to us, once or twice. My grandmother refused to continue contact.” 

“Why?” Rey asked. 

“I think she blamed the Skywalkers for Padme’s death,” Suri said with a sigh. “I have no idea how Padme died, but we always took her side.”

“Your grandmother was right. Padme was killed by Darth Vader, otherwise known as Anakin Skywalker,” Ben said dully. Wait, what? Rey felt anger in him, but she wasn’t sure who that was directed to. With a shiver, she realized how Ben must have been told that. “He killed her in a fit of rage.” 

Suri sucked in a sharp breath. “I see.” 

“That’s not true!” Rey blurted. Both cousins turned to her. She blushed, a little embarrassed to be involved in family drama. But then, wasn’t she always entangled in Skywalkers? Why would the Naberries be any different? “Master Leia told me that was a lie, told from Darth Sideous to Darth Vader to confuse and anger him.” 

Ben looked shocked. “So then…”

“Padme Amidala died from childbirth and grief, and some incompetent droids,” she said. “At least … that’s what Master Leia said.” 

Ben ran a hand through his long hair. “If my grandfather knew that … that would have changed so much,” he said. 

“And also with my grandmother,” Suri said. 

The cousins looked at each other. There were so many years of bad blood here, Rey thought, and years of anger and hatred. This family truly was a mess. 

She knew that, signing up for it. 

“So, about the house…” Rey said slowly. 

Suri blinked. “To tell you the truth, I just sail past it every now and again. I happened upon it today, and I noticed the boxes parked in front and that it seemed to have been visited. My family used to own lots of property, this one’s just been disused since the Empire seized it.” 

The unsaid, _So, can we have it, then?_ hung in the air. 

Rey coughed. She bit the blaster bolt. “So, if it’s being unused … we do need a home.” 

“Who are you, anyway?” Suri asked, a little irritated. 

“She’s my wife,” Ben said protectively. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “And she’s right. We need a place to stay, and we have as much a right to it as you do.” 

“Well.” She tugged at her sleeves. “I’d have to talk to my brother,” Kriffing hell, Rey thought, there’s more of them, “but I don’t have a problem with it.” 

Rey sighed. “Thank you, Suri. We appreciate it.” 

Ben said nothing. She dug an elbow in his side. “Ow!” he whispered. 

“ _We_ appreciate it,” she said, looking pointedly from Ben to Suri. 

“Yes,” he said, and he looked as if saying this pained him, “thank you.” 

“I suppose I’ll take my leave, then,” Suri said awkwardly. “And … leave you to it.” 

She began to leave, and Rey had a thought. 

“Wait,” she said, holding a hand out. Suri hesitated, standing in the doorframe. “We’d love to have you over for dinner sometime. Ben … thought he had no living relatives left. It was really nice to meet you.”

A small smile crossed Suri’s face. “Likewise,” she said. “I think I’d like that.” 

She left. And that was that. 

Rey turned to Ben and let out a breath, hard, as if she had just been running. For the first time that day, Ben was sweating. He sat down on a box. 

“I can’t believe that just happened,” he said. 

“I know,” Rey ran both hands through his hair. It was the longest it had ever been, long enough to tie up. She teased him often how she would shave his head in the middle of the night. 

“I have a cousin,” he said, in disbelief. 

“Well, a second cousin.” 

He looked at her pointedly. 

“Sorry.”

He took Rey’s hands, pressed one to his mouth. “Rey, I have family,” he said against it. 

She couldn’t relate. Still, it was nice to see him so … happy? This seemed like happiness. He radiated it so infrequently. 

“I’m happy for you,” she said, and kissed the top of his head. 

“Do we really have to invite them for dinner? I don’t know how to cook.”

“I can cook!” Rey said cheerfully, and Ben’s expression quickly sank to horror. 

“No, no, I’ve had your cooking. It’s fine. We can purchase something.”

“What’s wrong with my cooking?”

“I’d rather not relive it.” 

Rey sulked. Ben placed one large hand on the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss. 

“Thank you,” he said when they detached, and this time the words sounded less of a struggle. It sounded like he meant it. “For all of this.”

Rey smiled down at him. “You’re welcome. Now, come on! We have a lot of unpacking to do.”

Ben groaned. He stood, and joined her, hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me anakindidsomethingswrong.tumblr.com for questions and assorted debauchery.


End file.
